Dear Mr. Smiechowski

San Diego’s Most Expensive Property

The historic Melrose Ranch property on the market for $28 million (has an Escondido mailing address but is actually in Valley Center. In the 1930s, this was the single most expensive property in all of San Diego County. A full history of this remarkable estate can be found on the Historical Sites page of valleycenterhistory.org.

• Robert Lerner
• Valley Center Historical Society

Bad Insights from Middle America

Re: Obermeyer cartoons

Why you continue to print cartoons by this non San Diego resident, who is an anti-Chargers, anti-San Diego honk is beyond me. Last week, the tasteless Junior Seau cartoon, and now the mockery that the Chargers are going to steal from the general fund. The current proposal has little to do with what your magazine is propagandizing.

Why don’t you take pride in your city and quit publishing bad insights from someone in Middle America, Omaha, Nebraska? I’m sure we San Diegans would not be trusted if we were writing satire cartoons in the land of the corn being knee high by the Fourth of July!

• Erick Forkner
• Grantville

If That’s His Real Name

In the May 12 Reader there is a letter titled “Patron Saint of the Republican Party,” by someone who signs himself Daniel Smiechowski. It’s a crazy letter. In it, he compares Trump to Hitler and says we Trump voters are haters and we’re going to bring down ashes of annihilation on the country, and a bunch of other nutty stuff.

When I saw the name Smiechowski — there should be an acute accent mark on the initial S, by the way — it brought back memories of my youth, which was spent for several years in a Pollack neighborhood in East St. Louis, Illinois.

That name looked familiar. The root of it is śmiech. The word in Polish, it’s a noun that means laughter, or laugh. And śmiechoff means laughable. In other words, Mr. Smiechowski is some sort of clown or comedian or baffoon. That’s what his name means. So, if that’s his real name, maybe he comes by his craziness naturally. Maybe it’s hereditary. But that’s what śmiech means.

Anyway, Smiechowski, when Trump gets voted into office, I don’t know what you’ll do.

• Name withheld
• via voicemail

Alarming and Depressing

Bravo, Mr. Smiechowski. Your depiction of Mr. Trump’s candidacy to become the Republican nominee for the upcoming presidential election could not be more accurate or eloquently put, in my opinion.

It is alarming and, at the same time, depressing to think that someone with Mr. Trump’s views could become the leader of one of our nation’s most influential political parties.

Hopefully, more people like you will speak up for the voice of reason and help the rest of us see past this emperor’s-new-clothes hysteria that Mr. Trump is promoting. If not, it probably will be a “long, hot summer,” climate change notwithstanding.

• D.K. Fields
• Point Loma

Republicans Hate Him

I have a question for Daniel Smiechowski of Clairemont and his “Patron Saint of the Republican Party” letter. Does he have a lock on his front door, and does he lock it at night?

We want a wall to keep the bad guys out, not to keep the citizens walled in. Ronald Reagan wasn’t the patron saint of the Republican party. He was the patron saint of the conservative movement. The Republicans hated him, and they still do to this day.

• John
• San Diego

Wait Four Years

Re: “Trump Is a Farce, Bernie Is a Farce, Hillary Is a Farce,” March 24 cover story

Do not vote for Hillary. She is the least trusted person in politics. Her lies are legendary. For instance: sniper fire, Chelsea jogging around the Twin Towers on 9/11, etcetera. For women who just want to vote for a woman, wait four years and then vote for a woman who our country can trust and respect.

• Name withheld
• Vista

Lots of Sorry People

This is about the May 4 Ask a Hipster. I really like when he says, “I mean, what are people ‘sorry’ for anyway?”

I believe “sorry” is one of the most abused words here in America. I hear it all the time and, personally, I have to believe that there are a lot of sorry people out there. I wish there was a way to convey to teachers that they should stop teaching our children such a horrible word, because it is severely abused.

I have to totally agree with the Hipster on this, and I’m not even hip!

• Jeremy
• El Cajon

San Diego Weeder

Holy stoner, Batman! Twenty-five pages of pot shop ads in your latest issue!

I think you have two choices: 1) Cut down the ads by 80 percent to avoid giving the impression that everyone in San Diego is high as a kite; or 2) Give in and change the name of your fine, da kine publication to the SD Weeder.

• Tony Hawksworth
• Rancho Penasquitos